Scientists have discovered a correlation between the shrinking sea ice in Antarctica and the potential for increased storm frequency in the Southern Ocean. The study suggests that the loss of sea ice exposes more ocean surface, leading to an accelerated heat transfer to the atmosphere. This disruption in heat balance could alter ocean currents and contribute to more frequent storms.
Vanishing Antarctic sea ice could lead to more storms in the Southern Ocean, new research shows. Scientists found that reduced Antarctic sea ice coverage in 2023 caused the ocean to lose extra heat to the atmosphere. That heat loss could disrupt ocean circulation currents and cause more frequent storms in areas where sea ice coverage has declined.
Last year, ice coverage dropped by nearly half compared with the average between 1990 and 2015 in four areas: the Bellingshausen Sea and the outer Weddell and Ross seas, where sea ice decreased by up to 80%, and Enderby Land, which saw a drop of up to 50%. The full dataset from 2024 isn't available yet, but continued low coverage suggests an ongoing trend. 'It is too early to state whether 2023 and its record-breaking sea-ice decline marks the onset of a fundamental shift in the amount of Antarctic sea ice,' study co-author Simon Josey, an oceanographer at the National Oceanography Centre in the U.K., said in a statement.'However, our study does reveal the extreme conditions to be expected in future years of low ice regrowth, with 2024 looking like it is continuing the sharp change seen in 2023.' Related: 'We were in disbelief': Antarctica is behaving in a way we've never seen before. Can it recover? To understand the impact of this drastic sea ice loss, researchers analyzed heat flux between the air and sea, as well as changes in ice coverage from Antarctica in 2023. In the study, published Dec. 18 in the journal Nature, the researchers found that the newly exposed ocean surface lost heat nearly one and a half times faster than it had in previous years. This increase in heat loss could have far-reaching consequences. For example, heat loss cools water near the ocean surface, causing it to become denser than in previous years. As this dense surface water sinks, it could disrupt deeper ocean currents and circulation in the Southern Ocean
ANTARCTICA SEA ICE CLIMATE CHANGE OCEAN CURRENTS STORMS
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